The Last Stalemate
by Arleen
Summary: I'm no good at summaries. Just read it or don't read it, whatever you prefer. Rated PG-13 just in case.
1. Chapter 1

OK, here's my first ever finished fanfic. A thank you to all the people in my guild on another website who allowed me to use their nicknames in this story (all the names you see here that aren't in the movies, and some that are), and provided moral support :) A special thanks to my sister who edited my fanfic, practically re-wrote half of it, and saved it from being completely horrible.  
  
Now comes my least favourite part, but I guess I have to put it in. I didn't create the Matrix, and I didn't create the original characters like Neo and Morpheus. But this fanfic is mine, all the ideas here are merely my theories of what could happen next, yada yada yada, you get the picture.  
  
This fanfic is set right after Reloaded. Please submit reviews, and please be honest, if you think it's horrible just say so. Hope you enjoy it, have a nice day :)  
  
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The Last Stalemate  
  
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Chapter 1  
  
Something woke him up. He didn't quite know what, but some worry, some fear made him come out of his peaceful, dreamless sleep. Memories slowly came back to him. The Source, the Prophecy being a lie, Trinity... Trinity! That thought made him open his eyes. He looked around and saw Trinity asleep in a chair next to him. Neo breathed a sigh of relief. She was all right, and now he remembered saving her. She seemed tired and he decided not to wake her.  
  
Neo looked around. He must have been aboard a ship, maybe Nebuchadnezzar. To his right was a screen that was supposed to show his life signs. Neo didn't pay it much attention, but something made him do a double-take. Instead of familiar greenish lines it was a black screen. In glowing green letters it read, "WAKE UP NEO".  
  
"What is this," he asked himself, "some kind of sick joke?!" Suddenly the letters changed.  
  
"THE MACHINES HAVE YOU"  
  
"YOU KNOW WHO TO FOLLOW"  
  
"KNOCK KNOCK, NEO"  
  
Even though he half-expected it, the knocking on the door still made him jump.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Morpheus walked down the hallway to the infirmary. Though you couldn't tell that by looking at him, he was in a bad mood. He was used to being in control of any situation, to making decisions and acting on them. But now, being on Niobe's ship, he felt useless. The only helpful thing he could do right now was to go and check on Neo, which probably wouldn't help that much either.  
  
He knocked on the door, expecting the doctor to open it, but there was silence. He knocked again and then came in.  
  
Neo was sitting on the bed staring at him with a strange look in his eyes. He seemed surprised, maybe even a bit afraid, but what can you expect from someone who just came out of a coma? Morpheus smiled.  
  
"So you're awake," he said. "How do you feel?"  
  
Then the door opened and the doctor came in.  
  
"Oh, you woke up. I hoped you would soon." She looked at Trinity. "The poor girl didn't leave your side for two days."  
  
Neo blinked. "Two days? I've been out that long?"  
  
The doctor nodded. "So how do you feel?"  
  
It was funny how both Morpheus and the doctor said the same thing, but it was a logical thing to ask under the circumstances.  
  
"I'm OK," Neo replied, half-lying. Physically he felt fine, but that stunt someone pulled made him uneasy. And there was something else that bothered him. "How did I stop the sentinels?"  
  
Morpheus smiled. "You were lucky. It wasn't you that stopped them. One of them short-circuited, then an electric pulse triggered a chain reaction in the others. You were affected by the pulse, too, and that's why you're here."  
  
"Did you find something new while I was asleep?" Neo inquired.  
  
Morpheus nodded. "The machines are controlled through the Matrix. We think that if we can find the control room, we can turn them off, or maybe even make them self-destruct. The operator is trying to pinpoint the location, but it won't be exact. We'll have to go in and look for it."  
  
"All right, I'll play it your way," Neo thought to whoever mocked him before, then said aloud, "When are you going in? I'm going with you."  
  
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"Are you sure I can't convince you to stay?" Trinity asked Neo. They were arguing about it for a long time, her saying that he is still too weak, and him replying that they could use an extra mind.  
  
Neo shook his head. "You'll need my help. And besides, my physical condition doesn't matter when we're in the Matrix."  
  
Trinity wanted to say something, but there was nothing more to say. She knew perfectly well that without him the plan had almost no chance of success, but she was still worried about him.  
  
"All right," she finally said and lied down on a bench.  
  
When Morphues and Neo followed, Render, the head operator, asked, "Ready?"  
  
When nobody protested, he started punching buttons on the panel in front of him. "Here goes. It's my best guess for the location."  
  
The next second Neo and the others found themselves in a small park near a recreation center. Not far away were a few old apartment buildings, and a road that wasn't maintained for years. There was nothing special or threatening about this place. It was nothing like Neo expected. He thought that they would appear near a well-guarded skyscraper, or high in the mountains, or somewhere else where it would be hard to get. This place was too ordinary, and for some reason that made Neo even more cautious. Maybe there was a certain logic in building the control room in an ordinary- looking place: it would attract less attention.  
  
"All right, where do we go now?" he asked, looking around. "The recreation center is the closest building, so it's probably the best place to start with."  
  
Morpheus nodded and added, "We should split up. We'll cover more ground that way, and when someone finds the place, he'll call the others."  
  
"All right," Neo replied. "I'll go into the recreation center, and you check out the apartment buildings."  
  
As Neo opened the door, he felt someone on the other side of it. "Hello, Mr Anderson," said a chorus of voices. Neo walked in, his muscles tightening to be ready if Smiths attacked.  
  
"Could he be the one who called me here?" he thought. "No, that can't be."  
  
One Smith walked forward, smiling in an unfriendly way. "I know why you're here," he said, "And you know why I am here."  
  
Neo looked at him. "Yes, it seems that now your purpose is to stand in my way whatever I do."  
  
That was a pretty accurate statement since the room was so crowded with Smiths that Neo couldn't take a step without bumping into one. Smith must have taken the cue, or offence, because a second later a river of black suits poured on Neo. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
Neo could beat one Smith any day, but there were just too many Smiths. It seemed like for every Smith Neo knocked out two more attacked him. Neo dodged and returned punches with practised ease, but it didn't seem to achieve anything. Neo was already getting tired, and he started to doubt whether he could defeat all of them. In the Matrix doubting oneself was especially dangerous. If he believed he couldn't do it, he would never win. He knew it, of course, but he couldn't help thinking unpleasant thoughts.  
  
His situation seemed almost hopeless, and he was already in the middle of the room. Now Neo couldn't even get to the exit, and there was a ceiling that wouldn't allow him to fly away. It took a lot of willpower just to keep on going. The tired hands refused to move, and it was pretty hard to convince oneself that there are no hands. Neo knew that the smallest mistake, one moment's hesitation - and he'll be overrun. He just continued fighting. But he couldn't keep this up forever. Eventually he was bound to slip up, and then...  
  
Neo was almost ready to give up when the door opened and three people walked in. Getting a glimpse of them over the roomful of Smiths he realised those weren't people - they were agents! And what was even stranger, they were female agents. They started shooting at Smiths.  
  
To Neo's surprise, the bullets actually reached their targets. It was probably because there was so little space to dodge bullets with a gazillion Smiths packed in one room. The rouge agent copies were picked off with an amazing efficiency, until finally there were only a few Smiths left. They gave Neo an "I will be back" stare and left the room.  
  
Now there were only the three strange agents to worry about. But the fact that they just rescued him was troubling.  
  
"They need something from me," Neo thought.  
  
The three walked up to him. All of them were dressed like agents, with a black suit, a tie and sunglasses, but Neo noticed that one of them was wearing a skirt and didn't have an earpiece. The other two seemed completely like normal agents, except for the fact that they were female. One of the "normal" agents spoke up.  
  
"Someone wants to see you," she said, "come with us."  
  
"Why should I follow you?" Neo asked. "What if it's a trap?"  
  
The agent shrugged.  
  
"You have no choice but to trust us. After all, we just saved your life." She thought for a moment, then added, "She wants you to come of your own free will, but we will use force if you make it necessary."  
  
"Is this mysterious "she" the one who called me here?" Neo asked.  
  
The agent nodded. "Yes, she sent you the message. And she wants you no harm. Now let's go."  
  
The agents put away their weapons, as if expecting they wouldn't need them.  
  
"All right," Neo said. "I'd like to find out who this "she" is."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The agents led Neo out of the recreation center and to the apartment buildings. One of them walked in front of him, showing the way, another behind him, probably to stop him if he decided to run. The skirted and unplugged agent walked beside him, smiling sweetly at him every once in a while. Neo raised his eyebrows and pretended not to notice it.  
  
"I wonder how the others are doing," he thought. In the fight with Smith Neo broke his cell phone, so now he couldn't contact them. And even if he could, he doubted the agents would allow it. "As soon as I deal with this matter I'll have to go find them. If they already found the control room, there's no point in going back to search in the recreation center."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Render was sitting at his usual work station, watching the code scroll down the computer screen. A troubling reading appeared - it was Smith.  
  
"And I used to hate normal agents," Render thought, scanning for the nearest exit in case it was needed. "But compared to this guy they're cute little puppies."  
  
The worst thing about Smith was that he had his own mind, thus he was unpredictable. He didn't just follow orders the way normal agents did, he did whatever he wanted to do. And now he wanted revenge.  
  
Render wasn't going to warn Neo - it would only be a distraction. Neo should be able to sense Smith anyway. Render watched the fight start, and watched Neo's situation get worse. When it seemed that Neo wasn't going to make it on his own, Render established contact with the others.  
  
"Trin, Morpheus," he called out into his microphone, "Neo's in trouble. Recreation centre, just inside the door. He's fighting Smiths."  
  
"I'm on it," he heard Trinity acknowledge the situation.  
  
"On my way," intoned Morpheus.  
  
Render was starting to read off some tactical information that might be helpful to the rescue team, but then something else happened. The operator stared at the screen, dumbfounded.  
  
"What in the Matrix?.." he muttered, pressing buttons with almost superhuman speed. But it was useless.  
  
Neo and Smith just disappeared. The recreation center was still there, but there wasn't one living thing inside.  
  
"What happened," Morpheus demanded through the phone.  
  
Render lay back in his chair helplessly. "Someone must be messing with my signal. Either that or my computer's the most messed up piece of junk ever to exist on this planet." 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3  
  
Neo and his escort climbed up the stairs of the building 135A. It seemed like a typical old house, with writing-covered walls, and paint on the ceiling chipping off.  
  
The unplugged agent tripped and grabbed Neo's arm to keep from falling. She held on to him just a second longer than she needed to, and flashed another smile before letting go. "Thanks."  
  
The agent in the lead glared at her, but kept silent, and the third agent laughed quietly and said "Don't mind her. She always does her falling trick when she sees a cute face."  
  
Those definitely were strange agents.  
  
On the fourth floor they stopped and the leading agent took a key out of her pocket. She opened the door and motioned for Neo to go inside. As he complied, he found himself in a large room. It was filled with many boxes, and all the furniture lay in the corner, as if someone just moved in. His guides led him to the empty kitchen, and from there into a smaller room. The only furniture there was were a walk-in closet in the corner and a round, three-legged table in the middle with three chairs surrounding it. The closest chair was empty; another one seemed to be surrounded by shadows, even though there was nothing blocking the sunlight from the window. Still, Neo could make out a figure sitting there. And although the person in the last chair was sitting with her back to him, he could tell right away who she was. It was the Oracle!  
  
Neo stood in shock, and the Oracle apparently didn't notice the arrivals.  
  
"And then you drop the temperature another fifty degrees and leave them in the over for just three more minutes, so they are nice and crispy," the Oracle continued, talking to the person in the shadows, "and then they are ready to eat."  
  
Then the agent in the lead spoke. "He's here."  
  
"Oh, thank you, Thompson," the Oracle replied, turning around, a grin on her face. "You can all go now. And Smith," she added more sternly, "don't you dare eavesdrop again." Going into the smiling mode again, she suggested, "why don't you all go buy me some sugar? I used it all on the last batch of cookies."  
  
The unplugged agent smiled guiltily and the two others nodded. Then all three of them left the room. The Oracle turned her attention to Neo.  
  
"I know what you're thinking: 'I should have guessed'. And you have a lot of questions, but you don't know whether to ask them: after all, how can you believe my answers?" The old woman pointed to the empty chair. "Sit down. We have a lot to talk about."  
  
Neo ignored the suggestion and glared at her. "It was all a lie! You're one of them. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now."  
  
The Oracle shook her head and chuckled. "Those young people. Absolutely no respect for the elderly," she said to the silhouette in the shadows. "Oh, I don't think you were introduced. Neo, this is Shadow. Shadow, this is Neo."  
  
The shadows in the corner lifted as if by magic to reveal a girl sitting in the chair.  
  
"You're Neo, the one meant to stop the war?" she asked him, and, without waiting for a reply, shrieked excitedly "Meep!"  
  
Neo decided not to ask what "meep" meant. There were too many other things to talk about. He turned back to the Oracle. "Why did you lie to us? It this another measure of control? Or is it just your way of having fun?!"  
  
The Oracle held up her hand so he would stop talking and listen. "I never lied to you. You ARE meant to stop the war. Just hear me out and you'll understand everything."  
  
Only when it was already too late did Neo realise that he sat down. But since he already did, there was no point in getting up again. If the Oracle acknowledged this as a victory, it wasn't evident on her face. She just continued speaking.  
  
"First of all, you're probably wondering about my servants. I wanted to create a more social, more human-like agent. Most of them are just too formal, no wonder they scare everyone away. Then I decided to make it a girl agent. Thompson was my first attempt. But she's not what I wanted. At some times she's too much of an agent, and at other times too much of a human. And sometimes her two natures clash, and she just goes crazy. She's a mess. I wanted to delete her, but then decided that I might need a good worker, even if she does have multiple personalities." The old woman chuckled, then went on. "I tried again, and failed again. Smith was too human. So much so that she refused to be an agent. She says they are evil and have horrible fashion sense. That's how she got her name - she's unplugged too, like the other Smith. To distinguish her from him I call her Agentette Smith."  
  
Neo sat without speaking and looked at the Oracle, as if hypnotised by her story. He was listening, but he was still in mild shock after seeing her here. He was still waiting for the explanation.  
  
He didn't interrupt because any kind of information she gave could be useful.  
  
"Then I tried for the third time," the Oracle went on, "this time more successfully. Jones is pretty much what I wanted, though not exactly, but I decided that for me three agents is more than enough."  
  
The Oracle seemed to have changed; she straightened, lost that provincial tone of voice, and looked Neo straight in the eyes. He couldn't help but straighten also, feeling that the main part is about to come.  
  
"But enough chit-chat," the Oracle said, confirming his guess. "Let's get down to business. It's a long story, but you'll see where I'm going."  
  
She looked at him intently, as if waiting for his reaction to what she was about to say.  
  
"I was a human once." The Oracle paused, and probably the look on Neo's face didn't disappoint her, because she let out a soft chuckle. "It was more than two centuries ago. I and many others lived in Zion. We fought the Matrix to free our kind, much as you do now. And one day, we won."  
  
She looked at Neo again, and again his expression seemed to amuse her. "We found a way to free all the people, and that way we took the energy source away from the Matrix. You can't imagine what a glorious day it was!"  
  
The Oracle's gaze left Neo's face and instead rested somewhere on the ceiling. She seemed to go into her memories, hardly even noticing the young man anymore. She spoke slowly, in a soft voice that seemed a bit distant. "The Matrix was at our mercy. But too many people weren't happy in the real world. They would sell their souls to be plugged back into the Matrix."  
  
She sighed. "So it was decided to shut down the most dangerous programs like the agents, and then to let people back. Eventually almost all people were plugged back in. Who would want to live under that black sky?"  
  
The pause lasted a bit too long. Neo already started thinking that maybe she expects an answer from him when she finally continued.  
  
"Years passed, and some people died of diseases and old age. And then someone came up with a brilliant idea - why not copy out neural patters into the Matrix computer? That would make us virtually immortal. No matter what would happen to our bodies, our minds would live on as a part of the Matrix."  
  
The Oracle shook her head, and looked straight at Neo. There was something strange in her expression, some kind of arrogance mixed with regret and sorrow - that expression made Neo uneasy.  
  
"We did that and didn't bother with out bodies anymore," she went on. "But that created another problem - as more bodies died and more minds were built into the Matrix, we started to run out of energy. So we artificially created more bodies, ones that had very primitive minds.  
  
"After that everything would be fine, but we started to get bored and lonely. We gave ourselves new powers and abilities to keep us busy. Eventually we stopped bothering with names, and we became what we do. I am the Oracle, and Shadow can control light and shadow patterns. Otherwise do you really think an AI is needed for those kinds of jobs? But there were too few real people and often we had no one to talk to."  
  
Maybe having a premonition about what was going to follow, Neo felt a wave of hostility wash over him. Suddenly he got a strange urge to make a face and sarcastically say 'Awww poor you.'  
  
The feeling amused as much as disturbed him, but either way he decided to stay quiet and stone-faced. It seemed that he didn't completely succeed though, because the Oracle slightly frowned, and began talking more intensively.  
  
"We gave the artificially created bodies minds that were almost equal to our own, and allowed them to vary genetically. That way they would always be surprising and amusing to us. But perhaps we allowed too much variation. Some of the artificials were too rebellious, and some of them started to wake up. They believed that THEY were people and WE were machines, when in reality it was the other way around. They started to fight us. We had to turn all the Matrix's defences back on. Now that we were part of the Matrix, all the guard programs ignored us and fought against the artificials."  
  
"Whoa, back up a second there," muttered Neo, bewildered. "You mean to tell me that all the people that I know - "  
  
"Are artificials, organisms created by humans," the Oracle nodded.  
  
Neo opened his mouth, but the Oracle answered before he could even ask. "Yes, Trinity and Morpheus too. And yes, you also."  
  
"You lie!" said Neo in a falsely confident voice, jumping to his feet.  
  
The Oracle just smiled at him. He immediately understood the reply as 'you know I don't', and had to admit that he did believe what she said - that's why he was so upset.  
  
In the meantime the Oracle continued speaking, her soft voice calming him down a bit, but not enough to make him sit down again.  
  
"At first we weren't worried about artificials getting out of control, but eventually they became a real threat. Then I foresaw that the One will come to help us defeat the machines. But I couldn't find him on my own. So I pretended to help the Resistance to they would find the One for me. And they did." The Oracle smiled warmly at Neo.  
  
"Remember all the times you were in hopeless situations but somehow managed to survive? I was watching over you all this time. It was me who short- circuited the sentinels three days ago, too. And you probably already guessed that the control room is here, in this very apartment.  
  
"Now you must distract the Delphi from stopping the sentinels, Zion will be destroyed, and the war will be over. The prophecy was the truth, you are meant to stop the war, just not the way you thought."  
  
Neo looked at her blankly, not knowing whether to believe her story. He knew that deep down he already believed, but he still felt the way he did when he was first unplugged - all his beliefs were taken away from him and he wanted to just forget what he heard and go back to the way he lived before. Yet in a way all of this made sense now.  
  
Except there seemed to be a solution so obvious that it was hardly possible that nobody thought of that, and yet so perfect that it didn't make sense why it wasn't implemented. There was such an easy way to end the war with neither "artificials" nor people getting hurt!  
  
Neo finally sat down.  
  
"All right, let's say I believe your story," he started cautiously. "Why don't you just let all artificials go and allow them to return if they want to? I'm sure there will be enough of them coming back to keep the Matrix going."  
  
The Oracle shook her head. "They will envy us. They will want immortality and power, and when we give it to them too much energy will be needed to sustain us all."  
  
Neo frowned. He was sure that if the plan was properly thought out it could work. But then another idea hit him. "Well, I think that if-"  
  
"You're not here to think, kiddo," the Oracle interrupted. "I've thought everything through FOR you. Now do as I say."  
  
"So you accept no other solution than to have the free artificials destroyed?!" Shouted Neo, frustrated by she sudden change of tone.  
  
"As I said," the Oracle repeated in a cold emotionless tone that seemed to almost physically crush Neo, "everything has already been thought out. And right now there's no time to argue. This is the optimal solution."  
  
Neo got up. "We are still people," he said, not even trying to hide all the anger he felt. On the contrary, he tried to amplify it, to make it show in his every move, to make it obvious in his every word. He tried to retaliate against this cold voice full of empty reasoning. "Does it matter how we were created? We want to live, just as you do! If I must choose to fight you or us, I will choose you."  
  
Shadow quickly glanced at the Oracle, and the latter shook her head ever so slightly.  
  
"Please don't be hasty," said the Oracle to Neo. "Just look at this from a different point of view. You're the One, you should know better than to make rash decisions." She smiled the same way she did before, but now Neo saw the smile as evil and menacing.  
  
"You're the one who's hasty here!" Neo unintentionally backed away a bit, almost tripping over his chair. He automatically caught it in mid-fall, but instead of putting it back he threw it against the floor.  
  
"I want nothing to do with you!" he exclaimed and moved towards the exit.  
  
The Oracle and Shadow both sighed.  
  
"I was afraid you wouldn't agree with me," the Oracle said, speaking clearly to Neo, but looking at Shadow. "I hoped it wouldn't come to this, but..."  
  
The old woman got up with a young girl's ease. Neo, however, decided that it would be best for him to miss the spectacle that was about to start. He quickly turned around, but didn't get a chance to find the doorknob. The room became pitch-black, doubtlessly at Shadow's command. Neo knew this couldn't be a good sign. He frantically felt around for the doorknob, but it was futile. He decided to bash the door out, but at the moment when he was about to plunge himself at its unyielding surface, he felt cold metal touch his hand. The point of contact was just a small area, no more than the end of a ball-pen. It touched his skin softly, gently, yet the effect was instantaneous. He felt weak, and instead of the jump that he prepared for, he fell to the side. If there were no wall, he would've fallen. As it was, he leaned against it, in the dark, feeling alone and disoriented. A soft, cold hand held him so that he wouldn't break contact with the thing. It felt easy to free his hand. A small circular motion would be able to do it. But his hand just wouldn't move, just like the rest of his body. He just leaned against the wall helplessly, and kept trying to concentrate on something other than the ache in his head.  
  
It felt like lightening was piercing his mind, and he couldn't help but cry out in pain. He - he had already experienced something like this before. Back when he was surrounded by Smiths, and one of them was trying to override his mind. The feeling that Neo later described as 'it felt like dying'... He felt it now, with every fibre of his being, with every last corner of his consciousness. And there was nothing he could do.  
  
Then in an instant the pain was gone, and the soft metal touch that now felt more like a terrible sting disappeared. The darkness lifted and Neo saw the Oracle put something in her wide pocket, and return to her seat. Shadow still sat where she was before, and watched him with interest. Apparently she watched the whole thing, unobstructed by the darkness. Neo rubbed him temples and half-involuntarily lowered himself onto a seat.  
  
"What did you do to me?" He asked hoarsely. His voice felt like it hasn't been used in years.  
  
"I don't have time to convince you to help us, so I had to convince you the quick way," the Oracle replied, and smiled at him again. "Some electric and chemical signals to your brain to make you see my point of view."  
  
"You... You... enslaved me?" Neo knew that sounded stupid and wasn't exactly what he wanted to say, but he still hadn't fully come to his senses after the ordeal.  
  
"No, nothing like that," the Oracle waved her hand dismissively. "You're free. Go. Do whatever you see fit."  
  
It took a lot of willpower to collect enough energy to get up. He was still confused, but he knew he wanted to get out of there. He staggered outside. With every step it became easier and easier to walk, and with time his head was beginning to clear.  
  
Neo stopped just short of leaving the building. He had to think for a while. Finally he was able to digest all the information he got.  
  
Everything was really quite simple. Everyone he considered human before... Neo imagined what would happen if THEY had won. He never actually stopped to think about it. But if they DID win - what then? Having an empty planet with black sky, devoid of other life and sunlight. Neo involuntarily thought about Cypher. There were bound to be a lot of people like him, unhappy with the real world. Right now the cause of fighting, the Matrix, kept them occupied, and kept them together. But after - what then? Neo wasn't sure what he would do himself.  
  
And thinking about the people he knew... What was so good about them? What was it that made THEIR cause the right one? After all, it was just a selfish pursuit of something none of them could taste, or even define. What was that 'freedom'?  
  
Also, how many people were killed during this struggle for nothing? People who were still plugged into the Matrix were considered nothing more than potential threat. The programs were considered just an enemy. Neo was sure that anyone from the Resistance, given a chance, would kill any program without a second thought.  
  
And yet those programs were PEOPLE! They had feelings, they had goals, they felt pain. They were HUMANS, like himself. No, Neo corrected, even more so. After all, he was just an artificial. He was created, which meant he was replaceable. The REAL humans weren't.  
  
Neo was surprised at how blind he was before. But now he finally knew what to do.  
  
There was no other way but to destroy the rebelling artificials. And, he realised without any regret or fear, he fit into that category too.  
  
There was a strange feeling, or more like a trace of one, which frantically screamed against what he now realised. Neo shook it away. He had been on the wrong side for far too long. It was time to try and redeem himself. 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.  
  
As Neo walked out the doors the bright sunlight from outside momentarily blinded him. He raised his hand to shield his eyes and give them time to adjust to brighter surroundings.  
  
"Neo!" - he heard Trinity's voice. Turning towards the sound, he saw her and Morpheus rush towards him.  
  
"Are you all right," Trinity asked with concern in her voice.  
  
"Yea, everything's fine," Neo replied as he usually would. But it felt like he was looking at them for the first time. He was amazed at how different they seemed to him now.  
  
Morpheus - the rebel that couldn't even follow his own society's rules, much less the real people's. He was so set in his ways that nothing would be able to turn him from his path, not even the realisation that it's the wrong one. He believed in himself so blindly that it made him probably the most selfish and unyielding man Neo ever knew. He was willing to sacrifice Zion for a legend. It wouldn't have been so bad, Neo reflected, but it was definitely not what Morpheus wanted. He was just too blind to act differently.  
  
Worst of all, he was used to making decisions for others. With smooth talk and flashy actions he was taking away their freedom of choice; he brainwashed them into believing what he believed in, and into following him. And how exactly was it better than living in the Matrix? Freedom of Choice was what Morpheus called it. But in reality there WAS no freedom! In the Matrix, people at least chose how they'd spend their day. They chose their own goals, and the means to achieve them. They chose what to like, and what not to.  
  
But not here. Not in the so-called Real World. No, here everyone was expected to hate the machines. Everyone had to fight against them. Everyone had to despise the programs, fear the agents, and strive to free others. Where's the CHOICE in that? Where's the freedom??  
  
Neo was ashamed that once he considered Morpheus a teacher and a friend. He was ashamed that he let himself be brainwashed in the same manner as everyone else.  
  
And then there was Trinity - beautiful, smart, loyal. She was strong yet careful and gentle, so much so that at times she seemed almost divine. But maybe she was too loyal. She believed in Morpheus almost as much as he did himself. She would never accept the truth, she believed in her cause too strongly. It would be useless, even dangerous to tell her the truth. Almost like unplugging from the Matrix - never do it once a mind has reached a certain age. Neo couldn't imagine what her reaction would be. Of course, she would've agreed with him, had her mind not been clouded by Morpheus for so long. She would've realised the truth, and would've helped him. But as it was, he just had to keep this from her. It caused him some discomfort, but he knew there was no other way.  
  
"Any luck," Neo asked, trying to act the way he normally would. He wanted to pull Trinity close to him, to hold her and tell her that it's going to be all right, that he'll make sure the right thing would be done. But he suppressed the urge. If they became suspicious his new mission could fail. "I didn't find anything in this building."  
  
"What happened?" Trinity looked at him with eyes full of love and worry. "Render called us and said that you fought Smith and then disappeared off his screens!"  
  
"I defeated him," Neo lied, "and then searched both the recreation center and this building. I have no idea why Render didn't see me."  
  
"The agents must have blocked the signals Render received," he thought. "Smart move."  
  
"We were afraid something happened to you," Trinity said, and it seemed evident on Morpheus's face how the whole thing happened; he was probably talking about caution and discretion, and she urged them to act. And most likely she won out. If Neo knew her, they already searched high and low for him.  
  
Then Morpheus's cell phone rang, and when he picked it up Render's excited voice said, "I think I'm on to something! Try going back into the building. I want to check something out."  
  
"All right," Morpheus replied, wondering what Render found. "Render wants us to go into the building," he announced to Neo and Trinity. "Don't ask me why."  
  
"This is bad," Neo thought, following the others into the house. The minute they closed the door behind them Render's voice sounded again.  
  
"I knew it! As soon as you come in, you disappear just like Neo did! And when he walked out, I saw him again. I bet when you walk out I'll see you, too. Try."  
  
The group complied, and was rewarded by a thrilled shout from Render. "Ahha! I knew it! Apparently the signal from this place is overridden with a snapshot taken in the past. So when you move inside, your signal is being caught somewhere in the Third Junction, and is replaced before it even reaches my buffer!"  
  
"Bottom line," Morpheus demanded, apparently annoyed by Render saying things he didn't understand. Neo added 'ignorant' to the mental list of Morpheus's flaws.  
  
"Bottom line," said Render, apparently not taking offence, "whatever goes on in that building, I have only the image of it being empty. This must be the control room, otherwise who would mask this place?"  
  
Neo clenched his fists. Why didn't he think of that, why didn't he prevent it?! Though it couldn't really be considered his fault - after all, he was only an artificial. The Oracle could have thought of this, but if even she didn't, there's nothing he could've done.  
  
"Neo must've missed something there," said Trinity, somewhat unnecessarily. "We should search it again."  
  
A thought came to Neo, an idea of how he could take advantage of the situation. A plan started forming in his mind. But he wanted to postpone the moment, at least for a minute. So, when Trinity took Neo's hand and led him out of Morpheus's earshot, he was glad for a momentary distraction, and a chance to talk to her.  
  
"Is something wrong," Trinity asked quietly.  
  
"No, of course not," Neo smiled.  
  
"You're pale," she went on, "and nervous. Remember what happened the last time you were worried about something and didn't tell me?"  
  
"I shudder to think about it," Neo intoned. Not holding back anymore, he hugged Trinity. "I love you. I always will, I hope you know that, whatever happens."  
  
She hugged him back. "Is something going to happen?"  
  
"I - I'm just worried that we won't succeed. What if we don't find the control room in time?"  
  
It must've convinced her. "Don't worry," she said. "We'll make it. We have to."  
  
"It will be hard to watch her die," thought Neo. "But I have no choice." 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5.  
  
"Does this building have a basement?" Morpheus was asking through the phone when Trinity and Neo came back.  
  
"No, I don't think so," Render replied. "But you should go and check. For all we know there could be a whole underground city down there."  
  
"We should check it out first," decided Morpheus, putting away his cell phone.  
  
Trinity took out her own, to get one more question answered. "Will this 'masking' block communication as well?"  
  
"When I tried to contact Neo before, my signal didn't come through. But I think you should be able to call me if anything happens."  
  
"All right, thanks," said Trinity. She closed the cell phone and entered the building. Morpheus and Neo followed.  
  
The group already started down the stairs when Neo decided that they were far enough from the entrance to make his move.  
  
He lagged behind, so that they wouldn't notice him taking out his gun. But at that same moment Trinity decided to turn her head.  
  
In a quick motion Neo knocked the cell phone out of Trinity's hand. While it was still in mid-air he shot it so Render wouldn't hear anything.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. Then he aimed his gun at Morpheus, and pulled the trigger. The proud captain didn't even get a chance to fully turn around before collapsing on the stairway. His limp body bounced a few steps down before coming to a stop.  
  
Trinity looked at Neo with confusion and horror. "What?.. Why?!" she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry," Neo said again, pointing his gun at her. She didn't even try to do anything to stop him, and just stood there, looking at him. The gunshot sounded, and Trinity collapsed, dead.  
  
"I'm sorry," Neo repeated for the third time, realising it was a lie. He felt no regret, no pain, no guilt. Absolutely nothing. And that was what frightened him.  
  
"Is this who I am?" he asked himself.  
  
As if replying to his question, Morpheus's cell phone rang. Neo walked over to pick it up and tell Render the lie he already thought out - about the agents guarding the control room, and that nobody should go there but Neo. After all, he is the One, and has far greater chances of defeating them. But then he stopped. This was all pointless. He didn't care anymore who won the war. But he knew he couldn't go on living this way, with nothing but emptiness inside.  
  
He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to face a few Smiths.  
  
"Good day, Mr. Anderson," one of them greeted him in his usual way.  
  
"You want to kill me?" Neo asked blankly. "Go ahead."  
  
"It will be my pleasure," they all replied in unison. A couple of gunshots sounded at the same time. A moment later Neo's heart stopped.  
  
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The end. Nonono, just joking! Two more chapters. Please please please review. 


	6. Chapter 6

Quick note to Shadow: thanks for reviewing so much. I review your stories, but if I like them I always stick to saying 'great', I'm not really used to using all the synonyms. That's not cause I don't like them, that's cause me language bad.  
  
OK, on with the story. Almost finished. Last chapter should be up shortly.  
  
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Chapter 6.  
  
A faint hum penetrated the strange dreams that filled his mind. It seemed to be the only thing that made sense, so Neo concentrated on it. The illusions lifted as he slowly drifted into consciousness.  
  
He could feel his own breathing. He could hear his heart.  
  
Neo opened his eyes.  
  
The first thing he noticed was how poorly lit the place he found himself in was. He sat up and looked around.  
  
This room - if it could be called that - was filled with panels and screens; some coloured lights were on; some occasionally blinked. Wires lined the walls.  
  
The whole place seemed like a cross between a closet and a techie shop.  
  
Neo smirked. It seemed like ever since the morning of that faithful day when he was first unplugged, every time he woke up something strange happened - from nightmares to being supposed to be dead. The strangest thing was that he remembered dying. He remembered the blunt pain when the bullets hit him. He remembered watching himself bleed. He remembered the detachment he felt then. He marvelled at how different that death felt from his first one, which, coincidentally, was also induced by Smith. This second time he even remembered feeling relief as he closed his eyes, presumably, for the last time. But - here he was. Wherever 'here' was.  
  
He looked around again, trying to understand what this place was. It didn't look like any part of the Delphi, and it sure didn't look like anything in the Matrix...  
  
Suddenly the realisation hit him - it was the control room!  
  
He got up, trying to concentrate on what happened before. Most of what he remembered must have been a dream, otherwise how could he be alive? But if it was a dream, many other things didn't make sense.  
  
He felt lost and helpless, and so alone amongst this confusion.  
  
"Just... think," he forced himself, but his mind refused to sort out the wild thoughts that roamed around in his head.  
  
He should... he should remember where the control room is... Then, he should tell the others, and they'll figure it all out together.  
  
Neo froze. He remembered that he killed them. The memory stung like a knife- wound. And now he could only hope it was all just a dream.  
  
Suddenly the silence was broken.  
  
"Meep! It's about time you woke up," he heard a voice from behind him.  
  
Neo slowly turned around, wondering who it was. The voice sounded unfamiliar, but he was sure he heard that dumb word "meep" somewhere.  
  
"Oh, of course. Shadow," he said, seeing her face. She smiled at him in a friendly manner.  
  
It was her, right in front of him. So much for the dream theory.  
  
"What did you do to me," Neo growled, repeating the question he asked a lifetime ago. He felt a slow realisation that had he been more careful then, he could've prevented all this from happening. Had he gotten to the bottom of what happened right then and there, and not ran away like a stay dog, he would've been able to fight whatever effect that pulse had on him. He could've at least warned his friends.  
  
And instead, he... he...!  
  
All his confusion turned into hatred towards himself. And with every second, it grew, making it almost unbearable just to go on breathing.  
  
But when Shadow opened the door out of the room and motioned for Neo to follow her out, the terrible rage that built inside of him found another person to be directed at.  
  
"What did you make me do?!" Neo screamed and lunged himself at her.  
  
She didn't answer, just easily dodged his attack and backed into the adjoining room. Neo followed, ready to throw another punch.  
  
In his fury he hardly even noticed that the room he found himself in was that same one where they talked with the Oracle before, and that the door they came through was the door of the closet. "Sit down, we have a lot to talk about," Shadow said, as if oblivious to Neo attacking her. The latter just replied with another attack, which was dodged just as easily. The human tried to throw another punch, but Shadow caught his hand. For a second they stood face-to-face. "Guess whom you owe your life to," teased Shadow before twisting Neo's arm. He made a flip to avoid a pain-lock, and at the same time attempted to land his foot on her forehead. She ducked, let go oh his hand and retreated a step.  
  
"Agentette Smith bugged me about you for hours," Shadow said, laughing. Then, she jumped, and would've landed on top of Neo if he hadn't moved away. He retaliated by crouching and trying to sweep Shadow's feet from under her. The program jumped not a moment too soon.  
  
"She threatened to learn to clone herself the way the other Smith does," Shadow continued while still in mid-air, "and then take over the Matrix if I didn't resurrect you."  
  
Neo noticed that she had been in the air for a bit too long. He looked up to see her hanging on to a pipe on the ceiling.  
  
"Aahh, the power of love," Shadow noted sarcastically and swung over. Neo was quick enough to move his head, but her boot still came within inches of his face.  
  
"So she did eavesdrop," he said almost calmly. It amused him for some reason; but momentarily the anger was back. He attempted to pull Shadow down, but she was already on the other side of the room.  
  
Shadow nodded. "She always does that, always gets chewed out for it, and always does it again. It'll get her deleted one day. But as nice as it would be, I didn't do this for her."  
  
She ducked behind the table, narrowly avoiding a chair being thrown at her. When she surfaced again, she looked completely serious. As she spoke up, there was not a trace of her previous humorous tone.  
  
"I don't like this war, " she said. "I'm tired of it. And as long as there are artificials, it will go on. Even if we kill all of you, in a few years there will already be new rebels."  
  
Her words seemed to add fuel to Neo's anger, as he ran to the place where she was standing, and threw punch after punch. Shadow deflected his blows, and repaid with some of her own.  
  
Stepping back to gain some room, she tripped over the chair, but recovered quickly, using her momentum to roll back to her feet.  
  
"The sad thing is, we can't reprogram you to be obedient," she continued as if nothing happened, but it was evident in her voice that she was slightly out of breath. "Most of the good programmers we had died long ago, and even back then some of the Matrix workings remained a mystery. All we have to work with now is the user interface - and you, as a hacker, should know what a hassle it can be. It's worse than Windows, really! We're supposed to have control, but in reality we're almost helpless."  
  
Although Neo didn't waste energy talking, he felt that he was already starting to pant, too. But it didn't stop him from attacking again. This time Shadow jumped onto the table, and did a somersault over his head, landing behind him, her fist posed for a blow. Neo turned around and backed away, managing to miss Shadow's fist, but found himself flat against the table, with no more room for retreat.  
  
As Shadow advanced, he slipped under the table. Neo's original plan was to exit on the other side, but the table seemed to have a different intent. Its legs gave way, and the heavy wooden construction collapsed on top of Neo.  
  
He lay still for a second and gathered up his strength. Then he threw the debris clear, and the effort seemed to take the last of his energy. It felt that getting up again would kill him. Opening his eyes was hard enough. But when he did, he saw Shadow laughing so hard that her whole body trembled.  
  
"Are you done yet?" She asked, hardly being able to talk over laughter she didn't bother suppress.  
  
Neo looked at her in confusion, but then realised that she was right, he WAS done. His anger was gone, and he realised that he did act a little irrationally.  
  
"I think so," he said.  
  
Shadow approached and helped him up from the floor. "Sit down," she repeated.  
  
This time Neo just picked up the fallen chair and sat. Shadow followed suit. They were both out of breath, and waited a bit before talking.  
  
Neo eyed Shadow curiously, but this time with no hostility. He was the first to break the silence.  
  
"So, what happened? I mean, I - I remember dying."  
  
"I resurrected you," Shadow shrugged, as if it was obvious. After seeing Neo's blank stare, she went on. "What is our mind really? It's only our genes and experiences. Those are the only things that influence our decisions, the only things that make us think and feel the way we do."  
  
She smiled, as if in what she said there was the key to the universe. But then... maybe there was. "That, by the way, is how we were able to become programs. We 'digitised' our minds. And you do a similar thing too, every time you plug into the Matrix. The computer logs end up having your DNA and your complete life history. If we have that, we can grow you a new body and at the same time bombard your brain with all the signals you received in your life. And voila, you're back. Although I had to add some extra signals to compensate for the last time you were 'brainwashed'." Seeing Neo wince at the mention of the event, Shadow smirked. But he recovered quickly.  
  
"Why did you restore me?" he asked.  
  
"As I already said, I don't like this war. The Oracle thinks that we'll just have to destroy all the rebels every once in a while to have some quiet time shortly after. But this is getting... annoying, to put it mildly. And besides, we're in this mess now because we were afraid to face death when it was our time."  
  
Shadow lowered her eyes almost guiltily, as if it was entirely her fault everyone suffered. "The only way to stop this war once and for all is for you to destroy to Matrix. I'd do that myself, but I don't know how. The interface doesn't have a button labelled 'self destruct'."  
  
"But if I destroy the Matrix, all the programs will perish. Including you," said Neo, looking straight at her.  
  
"As I said," Shadow's voice became strong and cold - the voice of someone who already thought things through and was determined she was doing the right thing, "we are already overdue. And 'artificials' are probably more human by now than what we have become."  
  
Her voice changed again, taking up a no-nonsense expression as she changed topics from theory to practice.  
  
"I already sabotaged the sentinels. They'll never reach Zion, so you don't have to worry about that. Oh, and don't worry - I restored your friends, too. They're waiting for you at the bottom of the stairs." Shadow smiled slyly. "Although you'll have some explaining to do as soon as you meet up with them... And we should probably clean up this room before the Oracle finds out." Shadow looked over the ruins that this once-homey room became, as if surveying the damage. "Meep!"  
  
It was strange how Shadow always said "meep" with a different tone of voice. It was used to show excitement, annoyance, and now - friendly mockery.  
  
Then she got a cell phone out of her pocket and handed it to Neo. "If you want, you can call your operator to help you sort out what to do in the control room, now that you know where it is. But on the other hand, he thinks you're dead, and the building's masked so there's no way you can prove that you are yourself. Now I guess I'll just leave everything in your capable hands. Good luck." Shadow got up, then seemed to remember something and added in a low voice, "One last thing - if for whatever reason you fail, I've never helped you." 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
Neo walked out of the room. He still wasn't completely sure of what to do next. He wasn't completely convinced he could trust Shadow, and that she really wanted to help him. There could be some kind of catch to this, though he didn't know what she could gain by tricking him. But something told him that he could trust her. Well, at least she didn't "convince" him to believe her. In this confusion, either way it seemed that his best shot was to trust Shadow, and face the consequences later.  
  
Also, Neo was overjoyed at the fact that his friends were alive. He couldn't wait to see them.  
  
When Neo walked into the living room he saw agents there. His heart jumped, and he reached for his gun, only to notice that he didn't have one. But the agents seemed to pay no attention to him. Jones and Thompson were playing chess, Jones losing by a pawn but having a much stronger overall position. Then Neo noticed Agentette Smith sitting on one of the boxes and watching the game. When their eyes met, she waived at him and smiled. The other two just gave him a quick glance and went back to the game.  
  
This convinced Neo that there was no danger from them. He walked up to Agentette.  
  
"Thanks," he said, and outstretched his hand for a handshake.  
  
Agentette grinned from ear to ear. "You're welcome." She shook his hand and he walked out of the room. Agentette looked at the doorway he passed through, and went back to watching the game when he disappeared from view.  
  
In a few minutes Thompson looked the chessboard over and finally laid down her king, accepting defeat. Then she got up and left the room, too.  
  
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"Why did I thank Agentette Smith?" Neo wondered as he walked down the stairs. "Probably because it wouldn't kill me to do something nice for her," he decided. Or maybe it was because he felt sorry for her - after all, soon she would be deleted along with the rest of the Matrix.  
  
But - why did he think the Matrix would be destroyed? Nothing was decided yet.  
  
Destroying the Matrix was his sole purpose ever since he was unplugged. And now, being so close to his goal, would he really stop because of some lies someone told him?  
  
These weren't lies! Even though Neo was back to normal now, he remembered everything he felt and thought when he sided with the Oracle. It made perfect sense then, and it still did now. They were people! Living (in a sense), thinking, feeling, human beings! They were the creators of all the people he knew. And they were once just like them. How could he throw away all their lives, just like that? And how would he know that history wouldn't repeat itself? What if after shutting off the Matrix in a couple of hundred years he will find himself in their place?  
  
How much easier everything would be if all of this never happened! If he never spoke with the Oracle, or even if he was never unplugged from the Matrix...  
  
Taken aback by his thoughts, Neo didn't notice that he stopped walking and now stood on the stairway, leaning against the wall.  
  
The sound of footsteps made him turn around. As he for some reason expected, it was Thompson.  
  
"Hi," he said and was amazed at how calm and emotionless his own voice sounded.  
  
"Hello," replied Thompson just as emotionlessly. "Agentette told us everything," she continued, sounding even more cold. "I just wanted to ask you - how does it feel to be dead? Death, deletion - it's all the same. You went through that. I want to know."  
  
Neo looked at her for a moment. "Dying is different every time. But after - there is nothing. I didn't feel anything from the moment I died to the moment I was resurrected."  
  
"Thank you," Thompson said, her expression and tone of voice unchanged, her eyes hidden beneath her sunglasses. Then she turned around and headed back to the Oracle's apartment.  
  
This confirmed something he already thought of in the apartment's living room. "They won't try to stop me," Neo realised. "They might be on the same side with Shadow. Or maybe they think that the destruction of the Matrix is inevitable, and that to interfere would be pointless."  
  
"We are still people. Does it matter which way we were created?" his own voice rang out in Neo's head. "Death, deleting - it's all the same..." added another.  
  
He finally moved away from the wall and continued walking down the stairs. He had a lot to do - explain everything to Morpheus and Trinity, get Render to unplug them... "I'm probably bald again," he thought. "Great. And Trinity, too. Well, at least Morpheus won't have to worry about that."  
  
Neo pushed these irrelevant thoughts aside. First he had to decide what to do next. Now that he had seen both sides of the story, he found that he couldn't decide who should live and who should die. Whatever he did, people would suffer. He wanted to bring peace, but not at the expense of all lives on one of the sides. That meant he would have to talk the two sides into working out a compromise. Something told him that getting them to talk to each other wouldn't be easy - both of them saw the story only from their own point of view, and in their point of view they were the innocent victims fighting heartless monsters. Moreover, they all thought that there is no other way than for the other side to lose. Neo knew that something could be worked out. This was life, not an artificial game with only two choices! All they need to do is talk things through, and find an alternative. But things looked like the two sides simply wouldn't want to listen to each other.  
  
No, Neo wouldn't destroy the Matrix now. He would find something to distract the Resistance so that nobody would destroy the programs.  
  
His plan was simple. Neo would try to convince opponents to talk, but until he succeeded in that he would have to keep either side from losing. And that meant that for now he wasn't meant to stop the war. He was meant to continue it. At whatever cost.  
  
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Congratulations! You finished reading my story and survived the experience! Please please please review.  
  
Thanks to Shadow (who's also in this story, although I got the personality a bit wrong :) ) and Anonymous (what can I say? he/she/it is anonymous) for reviewing it, and to Anonymous for correcting my spelling of Nebuchadnezzar :) 


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